People Pleaser?

Like most people, I don’t like it when people are not happy with me. But it is my personality that I worry that not everybody will be pleased with me, with what I say or what I do.

My friends tell me that I can’t please everybody all the time. And I know that’s true at a reasonable level in my head. But there is still this unreasonable fear that I won’t please everybody all the time.

But its a mistake to try. As a disciple of Jesus, I follow a man who was more than a man, he was also the Son of God! If anyone could possibly please all people all time, it is certainly the Son of God. But even Jesus didn’t please everybody all the time. In fact, I think it might be safe to say that he didn’t even please the majority of people all the time.

He didn’t worry about this, though. There was only one person that Jesus was concerned about pleasing – his Father. And in pleasing his Father, Jesus brought the greatest gift to all people – the forgiveness of their sins. Jesus’ main concern was following the will of his Father by doing what was necessary to save people from their sins. That brought glory to his Father and pleased his Father.

My calling, like all Christians, is to bring glory to God by making disciples of all nations. By its very nature, this will displease many people. We simply cannot worry about that.

It is important to understand that it isn’t a matter of apathy, either. That I will not worry about pleasing everybody doesn’t mean I don’t care what they think or I don’t care about them. I do care. But I can’t live my life to other people’s pleasure – there’s just too many of them. I must live my life to only one person’s pleasure – and I chose God!

It is actually liberating to know that as I follow God’s calling for my life, I don’t have to worry about what other people think. Most people are not going to be happy with me. After all, most people were not happy with Jesus, either!

My prayer is that I surrender to Christ everything I have and feel. He will deal with me justly, by His grace. I need not worry about the one who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. My life is in Jesus’ hands and he thinks of me with love. A love that led him to the cross to die for my sins.